


Aftermath (Weight of Water)

by Linea14



Series: Klance Short Stories & One-Shots [9]
Category: Voltron: Legendary Defender
Genre: After the War AU, Aftermath, Alternate Universe - Future, Angst, Angst with a Happy Ending, Canon Universe, Comfort, Depression, Drabble, Emotional Hurt/Comfort, Fluff, Future Fic, Getting Together, Langst, M/M, One Shot, Sad, all i wanted to do was go to sleep and then this happened, brief mention of suicide (sorta), i guess, light fluff and heavy angst, my poor son, when the tags are long than the actual story lmao, why cant i tag all the sudden, why did I write this
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-03-09
Updated: 2017-03-09
Packaged: 2018-10-01 19:27:54
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,167
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/10197824
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Linea14/pseuds/Linea14
Summary: The war is over, Earth is safe, and the paladins are back where they belong.But space takes and takes and gives and gives, leaving behind someone who doesn't quite fit with who they were before."Would it be so bad, to float out there? To wade into the waters and stare upwards, just letting himself fall until he sank, sank, sank to the seabed with barely a puff of sandy dust? Caught between the two worlds he loves?... Would it really hurt any more than it does now?"





	

**Author's Note:**

> I didn't mean to even write this what happened lmao
> 
> Well please enjoy this drabble, and drop a kudos + a comment if you like it :)  
> If you want to listen to any songs, probably this and towards the end [this](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LzPPAw5tnqs)  
> But tell me that [this](https://youtu.be/xfaHZXWV0g8) song doesn't describe lance perfectly omggg

It was sudden, the realization that he could never be happy.  He’d spent far too long in space, his soul had spent far too long shining with the stars.  His heart still beat for home but now that he was here?

He still had the nightmares, jolting him awake.

He still had the homesickness, just in a different place.

He still had the terror, for someone else’s sake.

He still would always miss someone else’s face.

 

The only way to be happy now would be to forget, but that would be like carving away most of himself.  Leaving just a shell of a boy behind.

 

It isn’t fair.  He always joked about being a hero, but now he’s saved galaxies and its too late to turn back.

 

He barely even realizes he’s crying, shivering in the moonlight while his toes dig barefoot into the sandy beach, he barely even realizes he’s shaking, hand swirling gently in the water.

 

He missed space.  He missed the constant fight, the feeling of belonging.  Of being part of something greater.  He missed Allura, and Coran, and the creepy old castle.  He even missed the silence as much as he missed the boisterous noise of personalized floorboards.

 

But mostly he misses Keith.  The boy wouldn’t solve everything, wouldn’t give him true happiness (that was impossible now) but… perhaps peace?  Or as close as he could come to it?  Not that it mattered.  Keith had made his decision to stay, to recreate the Galra empire and become a blade of marmora.  It’s what Lance had expected.  They were just rivals, after all.

 

Lance presses in on himself.  He doesn’t even have Hunk, or Pidge.  It’s like that life never happened but still it’s there, eating him away and his family can never know the horrors or the joy that happened to him, and he can’t leave them either.  Stretched too thin, but wasn't he always?  A jack of all trades, master of none.

 

The moon seems to taunt him, looking just a little off if in the night sky and Lance hates it.  He hates how, now that he’s come back, everything is just a little off.  Everything remembered just slightly wrong.  How the fireworks that once made him grin now make him shake in terror, how his little brother doesn't even remember who he is-

 

Can he even do this any longer?

 

They won the war, so why does it feel like he’s losing the battle?

 

Lance stares out at the water, at the waves, noting the reflection of stars on the shimmering lengths.  Would it be so bad, to float out there?  To wade into the waters and stare upwards, just letting himself fall until he sank, sank, sank to the seabed with barely a puff of sandy dust?  Caught between the two worlds he loves?

 

Would anyone miss him, now that he’s been gone for so long?  A puzzle piece that doesn’t quite fit, that’s been worn and stitched and slapped together until it’s barely recognizable anymore?

 

Would it really hurt any more than it does now?

 

“Lance!?”

 

He stops, startling as he realizes the water is already up to his thighs, lapping greedily at his warmth and sucking it away.

 

He turns, eyes widening as they stare into violet ones before darting away.

 

He’s either dreaming or hallucinating- neither one is really  _ great  _ but if he ignores it for long enough it should go away.

 

“ _ Lance _ , what are you doing?”

 

Keith’s hand is so warm, seeping into his skin through the old cargo jacket he couldn’t quite bring himself to throw away.

 

Lance hums for a second, before answering languidly with all the time in the universe.  “I’m… swimming.  In water, in thoughts, in dreams- or maybe i’m sinking?  It’s hard to tell.  You know, I haven’t been able to surf since I got back?  The waves don’t feel right beneath my feet.”

 

The hand is tugging him back, towards the shore, towards  _ pain _ and he doesn’t want to go but he doesn't have the strength to fight, not anymore, so he lets the hallucination guide him back as cold shakes into his spine. 

 

“I figured things out with the Blades of Marmora, at least for a little while, so I came to see everyone.”

 

Lance glances at Keith, brows furrowing, before turning back and frowning at a night sky that should be familiar but wasn’t, anymore.

 

“You should go, then.”

 

Silence, a hand gripping tighter onto his shoulder.  It almost hurts, has Lance glancing down and staring at the paladin glaring back with watery eyes.  Wait, what?

 

“It’s been almost a year, I thought you’d want to see me!”

 

“Well, yeah.   Of course I do.  Can barely think of much else, actually.  But you aren’t actually here.  Or, if you are, you should visit the others because they matter more than I do anyways.”

  
  


The grip loosens, hand slackening before falling away completely.  And Keith’s voice is so  _ soft  _ when he speaks, it practically breaks Lance’s heart.

 

“I thought we went over this, Lance.  We’re a heptacycle, remember?  We need all of us to work.  We all matter evenly.  And what do you mean I’m not really here?”

 

Snorting at the fact that he has to elaborate his ideas to his own imagination, he plops down into the sand as he was earlier, back to watching the tide.  “Well, I was thinking of you before you showed up, and the real you is busy in space doing cool shit like blowing up rogue Galra, so obviously you’re a figment of my imagination.  It’s not like it hasn’t happened before, I’m pretty fucking messed up.”

 

“Have your illusions ever been able to touch you before?”

 

...Admittedly not.  Lance slowly uncurls, staring at Keith with uncertainty.  A fiery gaze, strong stance, overgrown mullet and slight scowl- he looked real.  He felt real.  But…

 

Lance’s hands fly to his mouth, eyes widening.  “Holy shit, Keith!?”

 

He’s scrambling up, throwing his arms around the red paladin and  _ squeezing _ because this is part of what he’s been missing this whole time, his counterbalance, his compadre, his crush.

 

And Keith is relaxing, some of the fear leaking into him and into the Cuban soil because it had been downright terrifying to see Lance like that, gazing intently at the water as if it would swallow him up whole.

 

“Yeah, it’s me.”

 

Lance is yanking back, blue eyes searching violet ones with a bewildered expression.  “ _ Why _ ?”

 

Keith takes a deep breath, curling his fingers into Lance’s jacket.  “Because I couldn’t bring myself to stay away.”

 

The moment stretches, each lost in the other’s eyes and pressing closer, closer, closer-

 

And yeah.  Maybe everything wouldn’t be alright.  Maybe there would still be nightmares and screaming and people just  _ not understanding _ \- but they would have each other.  Their balance.  Their focus.  Their world.

 

And in the background of their lives, “Home” would be steadily playing in the light of the stars.

 

_ ~Home is whenever I’m with you~ _

  
  


**Author's Note:**

> :D  
> Be thankful of my inability to have unhappy endings lmao  
> Someone really needs to take this power away from me. Anyways i hope you liked it, i figured i might as well share it :3
> 
> *fades into the background, leaving only words behind*


End file.
